


more than tragic, better than lonely

by sandpapersnowman



Series: Janey Springs' Emporium o' Fics [7]
Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Comfort, Handsome Jackpot dlc, M/M, Missing Scene, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Talking, Touch-Starved
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-20
Updated: 2020-07-20
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:40:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25394773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sandpapersnowman/pseuds/sandpapersnowman
Summary: The man comes out with his face covered, hood pulled tight over his head, begging them not to shoot.He’s got adamn good reasonto beg, too.The four of them listen with fingers on triggers, but Zane raises his eyebrows when he mentions being Jack’s first doppelganger.“Wait,” Zane interrupts. “TheElpisdoppelganger, right?"
Relationships: Zane Flynt/Timothy Lawrence
Series: Janey Springs' Emporium o' Fics [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1004580
Kudos: 53





	more than tragic, better than lonely

**Author's Note:**

> i'll be real when tim didnt have any trace of the digi-clones in the dlc i Immediately decided zane got them from a hyperion contract and needed to say Somethin
> 
> finished a while ago and forgot to post it whoops! title from phoenix's [Oblique City](https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/phoenix/obliquecity.html)

The man comes out with his face covered, hood pulled tight over his head, begging them not to shoot.

He’s got a _damn good reason_ to beg, too.

The four of them listen with fingers on triggers, but Zane raises his eyebrows when he mentions being Jack’s first doppelganger.

“Wait,” Zane interrupts. “The _Elpis_ doppelganger, right? There was some rogue Dahl unit that went alien-crazy and tried to blow up the moon, and you stopped them, didn’t you?”

Tim’s eyes go wide at the name.

“You — you know about that?” he asks, cautiously optimistic. Zane nods, so he continues. “Yeah, I… I was right out of college and up to my neck in student debt,” he admits. “I saw an advertisement for an acting job, and ended up contracted to being surgically altered into _him_ for the next rest of my life or so. First thing he did was throw me in the fire there, yeah.”

Amara lowers her gun.

“What the hell,” she grimaces. “That’s horrible.”

Timothy shrugs.

“And it — it wasn’t just me, I had teammates. _Friends_ ,” he corrects himself, like it’s something he’s tried to convince himself of for a long time. “Wilhelm chose to stay with Jack as an enforcer after it all, and Nisha was his girlfriend and ran a few bandit towns for him, Athena and Aurelia went their own ways, and the CL4P-TP unit… I don’t know what happened to him, actually.” He straightens his shoulders out with a renewed determination. “But _we_ saved the moon. The six of us, and a mechanic, and a little orphan kid.”

Moze lowers her gun, too, as does FL4K.

“I take it you didn’t have much choice in where you went after, though?” Zane asks softly.

Timothy smiles unfortunately at him, something weak and bitter that the real Handsome Jack would never have been capable of.

Zane glances around their group.

“Well?” Zane asks. “What’s our next step helping Timothy here?”

Timothy gives Zane a grateful smile.

Over the next hour, he explains his situation with the ‘Winning Hand’, Pretty Boy trying to control the whole station, and his inability to do much but hide and survive for the last seven years.

(He’s also pretty thrown when they inform him it’s been _seven years_ , but knowing that Jack is dead and Hyperion was run _literally_ into the ground is a comfort.)

Ultimately, they decide Moze, Amara, and FL4K will go on to clear the path, and Zane will stay behind to protect Timothy just in case Pretty Boy sends anyone after them.

They’re ten minutes into awkwardly sitting in Tim’s hideout ( _”You can just call me Tim,”_ he’d said, and Zane breathed a sigh of relief that they could be on more casual terms), when Tim doubletakes on his wrist.

“You have Digi-Clones,” Tim blurts out.

Zane startles.

“Sure do,” he says nonchalantly. “I got it from a Hyperion job I took a little while ago, probably —”

“Eight years ago?” Tim finishes for him.

Zane’s heart sinks.

“Yeah.”

Zane looks at his spawner guiltily. It had been reset to factory standards when he’d been given it, with no record of its previous user; it’s not like he could have known, or could have done anything if he had, but…

“Jack was mad at me,” Tim says softly. “I asked why he still needed me if he could make digistructed disguises just as good, and he decided he… Didn’t.”

Zane stays quiet, giving Tim the option to go on or leave it at that.

Tim continues.

“He took my Digi-Cloner, my guns, my shield, my ECHO, everything. He changed my ID from 1-A to 21-C, and then just... Threw me in with the rest of the ‘entertainment’ doppelgangers here.”

“I was almost thankful,” Tim admits, voice shaking. “I hated staying at Jack’s side, and I thought anything would be better than that, but of course he didn’t mention they’d cut off m-my _fucking hand_.”

His voice breaks and Zane can see tears struggling to form behind his mask. Fuck, the guy can’t even _cry_ because of Jack, even though Zane’s sure he needs a good sloppy meltdown.

He holds a hand out slowly, offering it to Tim palm-up.

“I’m sorry,” Zane breathes. “I can’t imagine what that must have been like to lose everything like that, and then be _trapped_ here.” He usually makes it a rule that he doesn’t get personally involved in jobs, but this isn’t his usual kind of gig. “We’re going to get you out of here. I promise.”

FL4K must be rubbing off on him, because Tim is a wounded animal and all Zane wants to do is help him. Feed him something warm and wrap him in a blanket. Rehabilitate him.

Tim doesn’t take his hand, but he doesn’t recoil, either; he reaches out to close the distance until his fingertips just barely brush Zane’s, his _real_ fingertips, warm skin against warm skin. It’s the first contact he’s had in years that wasn’t painful, or controlling, or unwanted, and Zane keeps himself very still.

(Tim’s heart squeezes in his chest. The contact is minor, cosmically insignificant, but if Tim had the words to explain how much it means to him, he wouldn’t even know where to start.)

(If Zane notices how achingly he pulls his hand away, he’s a gentleman and doesn’t mention it.)

**Author's Note:**

> i'm also [sandpapersnowman on tumblr](http://sandpapersnowman.tumblr.com/ao3land/)!


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